THE SWEETEST SOUND

THE SWEETEST SOUND

BY STEVEN OFFIELD, DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL MEDIA & MARKETING

WINSTON BRYANT, AN 8TH GRADE STUDENT at Curtis Middle School, spent a portion of his summer not playing video games or swimming, but attending Duke University studying Audio Engineering! He was among a select group of students chosen from across the country for this program.

“I thought it would be fun to try something new and I love learning about electrical and sound engineering,” said Bryant. “There are so many different specialties you can study in college and maybe these would be something I would enjoy doing for my career one day.”

This Audio Engineering course wasn’t nearly as simple as learning how to control a mixing board or place microphones; there was a major emphasis on the “engineering” part.

Students learned how and why technologies produce sound and actually constructed a loudspeaker by 3D printing the frame, coiling the electromagnet, and building the power amplifier for it. They operated breadboards and built simple circuits that make up the construction of the amplifier for the loudspeaker.

“Winston was always asking questions and trying his best to answer the questions asked during class. He was fearless,” said Greg Hernandez, Winton’s teacher at Duke. “This content is not easy, and he never gave up; he never let the difficulty overcome him. This kind of initiative is crucial to the development of a promising engineer and student.”

What are Winston’s plans for the future? Big surprise… He plans to attend Duke and study engineering.